I play this lovely little online game called Travian, and my, it's getting more frustrating day by day. The concept is extremely simple, as is the gameplay. You pick one of three races - Romans, Gauls, or Teutons. Being a fond lover of all things ancient (especially my dearest darlingest Latin!), I naturally hooked onto this game...but also because if I couldn't figure it out, no one in the world would be able to play it. I have long been a fan of very easy and addictive games like World of Warcraft, the Sims games, and Age Of Wonders (sort of like the regular Warcraft series). After picking your server, you are shown a small empty village surrounded by a moat (the illustrations are very cute), and another map of all the adjoining resources you can develop. Developing resources = more resources to build up your town and, eventually, army = the power to drive your neighbors crazy.
In short, my neighbors have been driving me crazy.
Shamboogle, the proverbial vegetable patch
The #1 fear of playing any MMOG is being farmed, gamer slang that implies repetitive attacks on a person that effectively steal that person's possessions again and again. I have quite unwillingly fallen into that statistic. Shamboogle, my village, is pretty well off in the broad scheme of things. But I'm extremely limited in what I can and cannot do. I am attacked at least SIX times a day by one or two different people who I've tried to deter...tried and failed. Let's say I have 12,000 crops in the middle of the day, when I'm at school. Naturally, I can't do anything about my village from there without feeling like an addict (/cough...WOW). So I sit and wait and watch my poor little village lose 1-2,000 per attack. This number gradually lessens as the attacks progress because my crannies can hold about 2,500 resources on their own...scarcely enough to get me by. When I get home, I have about 2,000 of all of my resources (my most persistent attacker is Portuguese and I wish he had better things to do all day than farm me only to go to sleep when I get home and leave me very poor). I have long since advanced past the point where 2,000 of anything would be enough to upgrade what I want it to.
This is my predicament: I seldom have enough resources amassed to create an army of my own. In the time that it takes to a) produce soldiers or b) gather enough resources to upgrade my barracks so I can make more soldiers in less time, I will have already been attacked by a force about 20 times my size. It takes resources to produce soldiers; if I don't have resources (FARMERMRMMM), I'm essentially defenseless. Apparently, the primary reason for farming (it's taken very badly, generally. For example, "That stupid farmer..." or "Man, I keep getting farmed!") is inactivity. I am most certainly not inactive, but the fact that my village is absolutely open to attacks in the middle of the day lends to that illusion.
Needless to say, fun games get frustrating fast. I probably need to buy a tank, tape it to a whale, and run over his village with it. HOW DOES IT FEEL NOW >:(
Read 4 comments (Leave a comment?)
fazel3 said:
Awh poor Ranjani… you will have to learn my dear qween, that faced with such scenarios… your only option is to find a way to cheat :)
Posted on December 13, 2006 9:35 AM; Permalink
Ranjani said:
Oh? I’m heard everything from “ATTACK THIS OTHER GUY; HE’S TAKING MY RESOURCES” to amassing a small army in another person’s town (which would be alright if it weren’t for the travel time necessary). I have a genuine aversion to cheating at any rate; I really like my whale idea though :)
Posted on December 13, 2006 5:12 PM; Permalink
Mithraugion said:
Hmm… that scenario reminds me of Kings of Chaos. Not until Alan, Philip and I teamed up did the guys stop farming us.
In fact, because of diplomacy, I turned the guy into an ally.
A USEFUL ally… mwahaha…
Posted on December 13, 2006 5:42 PM; Permalink
agmes to play said:
Powered by s9y-
Posted on December 29, 2008 10:37 PM; Permalink